Exorcist Fr. Carlos Martins says most of the people who come to him did not go looking for the demonic — they opened a door and never knew it was a door. Then: how the Church actually tells the difference between mental illness, the voice of God, and the enemy — and the test every exorcist runs before he prays a single word of the Rite.

Fr. Carlos Martins is a priest of the Companions of the Cross, an exorcist of almost two decades, host of The Exorcist Files podcast, author of The Exorcist Files: True Stories About the Reality of Evil and How to Defeat It, and director of Treasures of the Church, the relic ministry that has brought the relics of the saints to parishes in more than 200 dioceses. On today's show he walks Joe through the ordinary, un-dramatic ways Catholics give the enemy a foothold — the curiosity, the media, the unconfessed habit, the thing done "just for fun" — and then the harder question: when someone says they hear a voice, how does the Church know whether it is God, an illness, or a demon? The Rite of Exorcism requires the psychiatric question be answered first, and Father explains what an exorcist looks for that a doctor cannot.

Earlier in the hour, ACT's Monday regular Mike Koeniger on Virginia Ballot Question 1. On November 3, Virginians vote on a constitutional amendment creating a "fundamental right to reproductive freedom," including abortion, that the state may not infringe without a compelling interest pursued by the least restrictive means. The General Assembly passed it a second time in January 2026 (House 64-34, Senate 21-18). Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington and Bishop Barry Knestout of Richmond have asked every Catholic in the Commonwealth to vote NO, and Bishop Burbidge's letter was read at Masses across the diocese this weekend. Early voting opens Friday, September 18. Mike and Joe go through what the amendment's strict-scrutiny standard does to Virginia's existing parental-consent and third-trimester laws, why the Virginia Catholic Conference calls it extreme, and what the bishops are asking of Catholics before the 18th.

SCRIPTURE

• 1 Peter 5:8 — "Be sober and watch: because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour."
• 1 John 4:1 — "Dearly beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits if they be of God."
• Ephesians 4:27 — "Give not place to the devil."
• James 4:7 — "Be subject therefore to God, but resist the devil, and he will fly from you."
• Jeremias 1:5 — "Before I formed thee in the bowels of thy mother, I knew thee."
• Deuteronomy 30:19 — "I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Choose therefore life."

REFERENCED:

• Fr. Carlos Martins — https://www.fathercarlosmartins.com/
• The Exorcist Files podcast — https://www.exorcistfiles.tv/
• Fr. Carlos Martins on YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/@Fr.CarlosMartins
• Virginia Catholic Conference on the amendment — https://vacatholic.org/amendment/
• Catholics Vote No (Diocese of Arlington) — https://www.arlingtondiocese.org/vote/
• Protect Virginia 2026 (Diocese of Richmond) — https://www.protectvirginia2026.org/
• Virginia Department of Elections, Question 1 —
  https://www.elections.virginia.gov/election-law/proposed-constitutional-amendment-question-1/
• Bishop Burbidge's statement, September 14 — https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2026/09/14/statement-instructing-catholics-to-vote-no-on-virginia-ballot-questions-1-and-2/

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